Articles

Daniela Safrankova- Art Exhibition at Nova Sin Gallery

Friday 8 February 2008

By Daniela Safrankova

Talking Colors II at Nova Sin Galerie, Prague

An article by CL Dickson

 

You know what it’s like rushing all day from one meeting to another and from one thing to the next. It’s never ending! Suddenly it’s 6pm and you have to get home to cook dinner, to finish up some odds and ends.

 

Tonight, however, is different. Tonight you’ve got an invitation to go to an opening of an art exhibition. Tonight you also know the artist.

 

You know what it’s like when it’s cold and dark outside and you just want to get home to a warm house, and a cup of tea and a good book seems so appealing. Hey, what is wrong with you any way! How many times do you get invited to the opening night of an art exhibition?

 

Daniela Safrankova, who I’ve had the pleasure of working with and eating too much cake with at times, invited me to her art exhibition “Talking Colors, Part Two.” Then I, who until 3 years ago did not know which end of a brush to dip into paint, decided to write an article about it.

 

I was fashionably late for the opening, well, five minutes!  The curator’s presentation was already underway.  Then Daniela and her friend recited a poem called Talking Colors, named after the exhibition.  It was lovely and fitted both the mood and the paintings perfectly, and, luckily for me, each verse was read in both Czech and English (or this article would have been really short!)

 

Let me give you an example of the atmosphere, by sharing with you the some of the verses of “Blue.” 

 

Blue

Modesty blue is fake in who

She claims to be. She should so too,

When others look to her for hope

But all she feels like is a dope,

Sometimes to glow, to shine, renewed.

But then, spread thin, all-up and chewed

Wall paper background pealed and used.

Flexing, bending, she knows to cope.

Modesty Blue.

In her corner she sips her brew

Of mint and tea, by shadows wooed.

Cold, indifferent, mistress of trope

And dreams instilled in those who mope,

She waits for angels to trip through,

Modesty Blue.

(excerpted from the poem by Karl Koerner).

After much applause a lively jazz band kicked things off and we were free to wonder around the gallery and I did, glass in hand, and, as always with Daniela, eating a piece of delicious cake.  Maybe this is what all art journalists do- obviously it helps them get into the subject matter better!

 

So, how best to describe it?  My first impression was the room is just filled with a wonderful variety of canvases full of vivid color, where no subtle shades reside. The color just infects you and brightens your spirit, even before you take a closer look at the pictures. The paintings, all in oil, reflect Daniela’s vivid imagination and take you places- to Cesky Krumlov, to Casa Baleia in Brasil, to the woods mushroom picking, and to fields of sunflowers and tulips. A riot of colour and imagination.

 

The invitation describes the exhibition as “displaying the vibrant art of Daniela Safrankova, which tells unique, wonderful stories of people and places in a world of color.”  I think that this reviewer, Lawrence Wells, summed up what we all saw at the exhibition that night.  “She portrays her topic in joyous hues of yellow, red and green. The space in her canvasses is bursting with life and vitality, the cosmic dance of nature and existence reflected in her dynamic diagonal compositions. None of the lines are straight in Safrankova's world. The forms all swirl together, each interlocking in its rightful place”

 

So, please take the opportunity to see Daniela’s very original work! And, again to quote Wells: “In these pictures, the southern light glows through the landscape, and as visions, they warm the heart.” You won’t be disappointed!

 

 

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